


First Sight

by silencedancer



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, exchange fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-13
Updated: 2010-05-13
Packaged: 2017-10-09 10:38:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/86369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silencedancer/pseuds/silencedancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The situation in which Rude first sees Tifa and how he comes to be protective of her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Sight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Person](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Person/gifts).



> Betaed by Cendri.

"Hey Rude," Reno said idly as the two Turks waited outside of Tseng's office.

"Hm?"

"How come you don't fight that AVALANCHE chick? I'm not blind, you know," asked Reno as he fidgeted.

As was usual for Rude, he answered Reno very simply: "An old friend wouldn't like her to get hurt." Reno raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't ask if there was more to the story. He knew that Rude told only as much as he wanted to and could not be pushed to say more. This made Rude a very good Turk, but it also made it maddening to get information about his personal life out of him.

There _was_ more to the story, but Rude tended to keep those memories to himself…

\----

A couple of days after the 'Nibelheim Incident', as they were calling it, Rude got a surprise phone call on his cell phone. Since he was in the middle of filling out boring but important paperwork about his last mission he almost didn't answer it at first. He didn't recognize the number, but he was glad that he did answer in the end.

It turned out to be his old fighting instructor, Zagan, whom Rude had given his number to last time they met. The last time they met was in Rude's hometown after Rude first joined the Turks, but Zangan did not approve of him working for Shinra. They were no longer student and teacher though at that time, however, and Rude gave Zangan his number just in case he ever wanted to talk to Rude again.

Despite the amicable separation, Rude was surprised to hear Zangan on the phone, speaking in a hushed panicked tone instead of the normal calm voice that Rude was used to hearing.

"I hope I haven't called you in the middle of something important, but I have a student dying here and Cure isn't working to heal her. I need to find a doctor who will treat her discreetly and fast, but I'm not familiar with Midgar. Can you help me?" said Zangan.

"I can try," said Rude, keeping his words short in case anyone overheard.

"Good. Right now, I'm in what I'm told is Sector 7, below the plate. When I was asking for help, I was directed to the lady that owns the 7th Heaven and she has given us a place to stay. Ask for me there."

"Got it." Then Rude ended the call abruptly wondering why Zangan called him, of all people.

\----

Rude had managed to wrangle a three days leave from his superiors and brought along with him the only doctor he fully trusted to 7th Heaven. This doctor was an old friend of Rude's who worked with the poor and Rude usually went to him for things he'd rather not have in his personnel file.

Rude managed to do all of this and change out of his Turk uniform within two hours knowing that Zangan never kidded around about injuries and if he said a girl was dying and needed help quick, he meant it.

The bar was not hard to find at all when he arrived in Sector 7 as it was hard to ignore the neon lights saying the bar's name over the door in an sector mostly filled with residential buildings. He and the doctor entered the bar and he told the woman behind the bar counter that they were here to see Zangan. She nodded and motioned to them to follow her into the back room.

"Zangan and the girl that he brought with him are in the basement," she whispered into Rude's ear, "If you hit the side switch here on the pin ball machine, then it will take you down there. Your friend was lucky that the basement is empty at the moment."

Without pause, Rude followed the woman's instructions and told the doctor to come with him. After descending into the basement he saw exactly why Zangan needed help so badly. On the bed that Zangan was sitting next to was an unconscious girl who looked about sixteen years old with a bandage on her side that had bled through.

The doctor immediately rushed to the wounded girl's side, rapidly asking questions of Zangan about what happened. Zangan answered the questions well enough, but there was a sort of tenseness in Zangan's body when he was asked about how she received her injury. After the doctor's questions were answered to his satisfaction, he turned away from Zangan and focused all of his attention on the girl and started to unwrap the bloody bandages.

Zangan stepped away from the bed and sat down at a small table on the other side of the small basement room. He motioned for Rude to sit down next to him, to which he complied.

"What's her name?" asked Rude, his curiosity getting the best of him.

"Tifa Lockhart. One of the best students I've ever had. Sweetest too. She'd probably be a match for you, Rude." Rude's former teacher was intently watching the doctor work on Tifa, whom Rude observed to be a rather pretty girl despite the blood on her and her clothing. It definitely did not take away from the elegant way her long brown hair fanned out from her face.

Rude finished looking over the girl that he now knew as Tifa and said, "She's pretty. Where is she from?"

"I'd rather not say."

"She's from Nibelheim, isn't she? I'm more observant than most, plus I've seen pictures from the incident," said Rude who looked closer at the girl's wound now that it was fully uncovered, "Her wounds seem very similar to those that would've been inflicted by Sephiroth's sword."

Zangan paled. "Please don't talk about this to your superiors, I know what kind of work they—and you—do." he said, a hint of disapproval creeping into his tone.

"I don't talk much. She's safe here," said Rude, ignoring the judgment, "Why did you call me anyway? I thought you had given up on me since I had joined the Turks."

"I may not like what you do, but that doesn't mean you're a different person than the student I taught. I don't give up on students." He gestured toward Tifa, as if to illustrate this fact. "I wouldn't have called if I didn't think I could trust you. Plus, I didn't know anyone else in Midgar." With this subject closed, Zangan looked over to the doctor and asked, "Can you help her?"

"The wound is pretty severe, but I can help her," said the doctor and Rude could hear a sigh of relief from Zangan. The doctor continued, "It might take several weeks or months for her to recover, but that's better than being dead." Rude raised an eyebrow at this, thinking that most people would've rather be dead than live in the slums.

Rude looked carefully at Zangan. "Do you need any more of my help?"

"Not really, though if you want to visit me and her every so often, I wouldn't mind," said Zangan, "Just make sure you don't lead your friends here."

"Hm. Maybe I'll come to visit. It'd be mostly to talk to you though. I don't want to bother the girl while she's healing," said Rude.

"About that Rude…I won't be here once Tifa gets better. I feel bad about leaving her here, but it'd be better if I left. I'll probably still be here until I'm certain of her recovery," said Zangan with a tinge of sadness in his voice. This surprised him, as he was certain that Zangan would never leave a student behind but considering where they came from he may have had a good reason. Rude doubted he could get an answer, however.

Rude nodded. "I'll just let the doctor do his job. He'll be able to make it home on his own. I'll come by tomorrow. Good luck with the girl."

\----

Rude came as often as he could in the coming weeks to visit Zangan at the bar, but he didn't ask to see Tifa again. He just spent his time talking to his old teacher catching up on things. There wasn't much to talk about after they talked about the usual things people talked about after not seeing each other for years since Zangan kept quiet about his time in Nibelheim and Rude wouldn't talk about his work; they just sat there drinking beer together at that point.

Then one day, Zangan wasn't at 7th Heaven. Instead the girl was standing at the bar, working as a bartender. She was washing the counter when he came in, looking much healthier than the last time he saw her weeks ago. Rude thought to leave the place, but instead he went in and ordered his usual drink as going to the bar had become habit. Besides, he felt that he'd owed it to Zangan to keep an eye on the girl anyways. Despite the fact that he had only seen her once, when she was injured, he still felt protective over her. Now that she was up and moving, he could see that she moved with a martial fighter's grace and knew that Zangan was right about her.

He knew that if he was to protect her it'd have to be from a distance, with her never knowing that he helped save her life. It was how he did things, usually. He'd even keep the knowledge of the secret room from his superiors just to protect her and the place she worked at.

When she gave him his drink with a smile, he nodded to her and took it. Yes, he'd keep an eye on her for his friend.


End file.
